Incorporation of graphene oxide to metal-free phthalocyanine through hydrogen bonding for optoelectronic applications: An experimental and computational study
Abstract
This paper focuses on incorporation of graphene oxide (GO) to metal-free
phthalocyanine (MPc) through only hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking.
Briefly, Pc-GO composites at various concentrations were prepared by selfassembly
method. The processing time was kept below 10 min to avoid covalent
attachment and we aimed at answering the research question of what will
happen if the conjugation is realized only through hydrogen bonding under
extremely limited processing times. The as-prepared MPc-GO composites were
characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), UV-Vis, scanning electron
microscope (SEM), and fluorescence analysis. We report that the interaction
between MPc and GO could immediately be initiated upon mixing of
corresponding solutions. Also, complete conjugation by hydrogen bonding and
π-π stacking could be reached even only in 5 min of sonication time. In addition,
it was also determined that the prepared MPc-GO composites are stable
at room conditions and during dilution. Finally, the optoelectronic properties
of MPc and MPc-GO composites were also investigated experimentally and
theoretically. Both experimental and theoretical results suggest that MPc-GO
composites exhibit improved optoelectronic properties as compared to MPc,
even though the conjugation of GO to MPc was only via hydrogen bonding
without covalent attachment.